General Ross wasn’t a billionaire.
But as a lieutenant general in the U.S.
Army, the amount of funding he could mobilize was anything but small.
As everyone knew, the U.S.
military didn’t buy what was right.
It bought what was expensive.
For example— A coffee cup that cost only fifty cents to manufacture could be purchased by the military for $1,280.
A bag of ordinary screws could be bought for $90,000, roughly nine hundred times the market price.
Then there were things like spending $10,000 on a toilet seat and $90,000 on a single goat.
In other words, the fifty-million-dollar fee Roy had quoted General Ross was roughly equivalent to exchanging 556 goats or 556 bags of ordinary screws for Banner.
Paying that much to secure Roy’s assistance in capturing Banner wasn’t a bad deal at all.
More importantly, Roy’s professionalism was well known.
He only collected payment after completing a commission.
If he failed…
Well, up to this point, Roy had never failed a commission.
“Once the target appears, call the number on this card.” “I’ll come over immediately.” Roy took a business card out of his system storage and handed it to General Ross.
Ross nodded, accepted the card, and put it away.
Then he stood and extended his right hand toward Roy.
Roy didn’t refuse.
He stood and shook Ross’s hand.
Flying Raijin Formula!
While shaking hands, Roy discreetly placed a Flying Raijin formula on General Ross.
To prevent Ross from noticing it, Roy imprinted the formula beneath the skin.
At the same time, he glanced at the middle-aged man standing behind Ross.
“That bodyguard of yours is quite something.” Although General Ross hadn’t introduced him, Roy had already guessed the man’s identity.
The future— Abomination!
Emil Blonsky!
Judging from the life intensity Roy sensed from him, Blonsky had already been injected with the enhancement serum..developed under another biotechnology augmentation experiment known as the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project.
His strength, speed, endurance, and other physical capabilities had all been significantly enhanced.
As for whether his healing ability had also reached the level shown in the movie, Roy couldn’t determine that yet.
After all, Blonsky wasn’t injured.
If his regenerative ability really was as powerful as in the movie—allowing him to fully recover in a single day after suffering crushing fractures throughout his entire body and being brought to the brink of death—then in terms of healing alone, the serum he had received was even stronger than the one injected into Captain America.
“His name is Blonsky.” “He’s the field commander of the capture team and one of my best men.” General Ross briefly introduced him.
“If you appointed him as the capture team’s commander, then he must have something exceptional about him.” Roy replied.
General Ross said nothing more.
He left the agency with Blonsky and his female secretary.
After entering the elevator, Blonsky looked at Ross in confusion.
“Sir, I don’t understand why you’re spending fifty million dollars to hire him for the capture operation.” “He’s not military.” “There aren’t even any signs on the webbing between his thumbs and index fingers that he’s undergone weapons training.” “From the brief interaction we just had, he seems like an ordinary person.” An ordinary person?
If Roy counted as ordinary, then there weren’t any superhumans in this world at all.
General Ross glanced at Blonsky.
“I can’t disclose the specifics of his file.” “All I can tell you is that he’s far from as simple as you think.” “In the military’s internal records, his codename is—” Human Nuclear Bomb.
“His threat level is considered comparable to a thirty-megaton nuclear weapon.” “And unlike an actual nuclear bomb, he’s the kind that can be detonated repeatedly.” How is that possible?
Both Blonsky and the female secretary, Kathleen Sparr, stared at Ross in disbelief.
They were military personnel.
They knew exactly what a thirty-megaton nuclear weapon represented.
…
After Ross and the others left, Roy returned to the chair behind his desk.
He took out his game controller and launched the unfinished game Berserker’s Creed.
He only played for a little over ten minutes before putting the controller down.
Then he seriously began considering something.
Should he get his hands on the physical-enhancement formula Norman was currently using and let Gwen become a superhuman too?
If possible, Roy would prefer for Gwen to become Spider-Gwen, just like her counterpart from the parallel universe Earth-65.
But in this universe, he had no idea whether Gwen would ever encounter the spider that would turn her into Spider-Gwen.
Back to Norman’s enhancement formula.
Although Norman had developed side effects such as violent tendencies, aggression, and bouts of insanity after using it, Harry’s case suggested that Norman had simply been particularly unlucky.
Roy thought the matter over several times.
Then he made his decision.
He would obtain the physical-enhancement formula used by Norman and Harry.
And that wasn’t all.
He also intended to obtain the genetically engineered super spiders created by Columbia University’s Science Center— As well as a sample of Parker’s blood.
Once he had those three things, he could draw a vial of Gwen’s blood and ask Tony for help.
Tony specialized more in mechanical engineering than biological engineering.
But for someone like him, whether it was perfecting the enhancement formula used by Norman and Harry or using the super spiders and Parker’s mutation as references to reproduce the same mutation in Gwen shouldn’t be especially difficult.
After all— Tony was a man capable of developing a navigation system for time travel in a single night.
If he could solve precision navigation through spacetime— Then something as minor as genetic mutation and biological enhancement naturally shouldn’t be much of a problem.
If there was one drawback, it was that asking Tony for help would mean owing him a favor.
But if it gave Gwen the ability to protect herself, Roy could accept owing Tony one.
With his decision made, Roy shut down the computer and used the Flying Raijin Jutsu to leave the agency.
The next second— He arrived at Columbia University’s Science Center.
It took him less than half an hour to obtain what he wanted.
He didn’t take all fourteen super spiders with him.
He only extracted their venom.
After collecting the venom, he also copied the research data concerning the super spiders.
After leaving Columbia University’s Science Center, Roy headed to Norman’s mansion.
He knew exactly where Norman’s secret room was located.
Using Chakra Sensing, Roy confirmed that Norman wasn’t inside.
Then he infiltrated the secret room and took a vial of the physical-enhancement formula.
To avoid being caught by any hidden cameras inside the mansion or secret room, Roy had used the Transformation Jutsu before entering and assumed someone else’s appearance.
Super spider venom!
Physical-enhancement formula!
Now he only lacked— Parker’s blood sample!
After leaving Norman’s mansion, Roy didn’t return to the agency.
Instead, he activated Chakra Sensing once again and searched for Parker.
He quickly locked onto Peter’s position.
Just as Roy had expected— Peter was out fighting crime somewhere in the city.
Now that school was over and he didn’t have a job, Peter had plenty of free time to devote to crime-fighting.
After locating him, Roy took three items from his system storage.
A white Konoha ANBU-style animal mask.
An Akatsuki cloak covered in red clouds.
And Gaara’s small gourd.
Once he had put everything on, Roy immediately activated the Flying Raijin Jutsu and teleported to the nearest marked location to Peter.